


things you do for love

by saucysonnett



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F, Roadtrip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:36:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23162158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saucysonnett/pseuds/saucysonnett
Summary: Lindsey has a couple of days, and one person she wants to see. Sure, Orlando was a 1 day and 18 hour drive away, but she didn’t care. She broke out into a sprint back to her apartment, grabbed her still unpacked suitcase, and ran down to her car.It was time for a road trip.orthe one where Lindsey drives 42 hours cross country because Portland just doesn't feel right without Emily.
Relationships: Lindsey Horan/Emily Sonnett
Comments: 8
Kudos: 71





	things you do for love

**Author's Note:**

> Title based on the song "Things You Do For Love" by Thomas Rhett because I was listening to it and thought of this idea and because I think it's pretty fitting.
> 
> Sorry for any typos. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Lindsey knew that she should be focused on the game, since it started in just 2 hours. She knew that she was starting and this determined if they won the tournament, but as she sat on her bed all she could bring herself to do was scroll through Emily’s instagram. Emily was bouncing around their room, dancing to who knows what. Lindsey thinks she remembers listening to it from their playlist, but never really can tell with the music Emily listens to. 

Lindsey really wants to be present to this moment--their last time sharing a room for a while, their last game together for a while, their last time together. She went to Sonny’s page to find a picture to post of them for her gameday post, but as hard as she tries to ignore it, all she can look at is her recent post. 

She sees Emily smiling back at her...wearing purple. It all feels so wrong. The first time she saw it, Lindsey immediately left the app, unable to bear it. She knows she should’ve been a normal, supportive best friend. She should’ve liked it at the least, maybe left a comment, like Kelley did. But the tightness in her chest stopped her. 

Now, after scrolling through the comments, after looking up at Lindsey smiling and bouncy around her...she hits the comment box and all she can think to type is “No” and she sends the comment. She knows that maybe Son will see the comment, but also knows she has her notifications off. 

She then goes to post her gameday picture. She almost decides on the photo of her celebrating her goal against Canada with Sonnett chasing her from behind. But she isn’t feeling particularly cheery, so she posts a more subdued picture of her warming up. She would usually caption in “footy day” but decides on something a bit more ambiguous, and posts it.

“Linds?” Sonny says, snapping her out of her trance. “I saw your comment.” 

She isn’t dancing anymore, isn’t up and smiling. She’s sitting beside Lindsey on the bed and looks at her, eyebrows crinkled in concern. The bags under her are eyes evident from lack of sleep lately--from her and Lindsey staying up late into the night to talk, to cherish their last bit of time together. 

Lindsey doesn’t even know how to answer. She feels a tear rolling down her cheek. Emily reaches to brush it off gently with her thumb. 

“I just, I don’t want this, Em. This isn’t fair. I don’t want this to be the last one. I don’t wanna go back to Portland without my best friend. I don’t want to play on a team without you. I don’t wanna live in--” 

“Linds,” Emily cuts her off. All she can do is envelop her into her arms. They sit like that for a long moment before Kelley barges into their room. “What are you guys doing? We have to be on the bus and leaving in 5 minutes! Oh, I’m...sorry.”  
She turns from the room quickly and Lindsey and Emily just look up at each other and untangle themselves. 

———-

The bus ride from the hotel stadium is quiet, with everyone focusing. 

The two sit in their normal seats, one earbud in Emily’s ear, the other in Lindsey’s. They listen to their shared playlist, fingers intertwined, Lindsey’s head resting on Emily’s shoulder. They don’t say anything the whole way. 

———-

They win, but not without drama. Lindsey goes down early in the game, taken down by a Japanese player. They almost took her out of the game, but she made sure they didn’t let that happen. Her shoulder did twinge a bit when she ran throughout the rest of the game, but when the ball hit the back of the net after coming off her head in the 83rd minute, she forgot about it for a second. 

Kelley got to her first, protecting her shoulder, snapping her back to reality. Apparently Mal didn’t get the memo when she jumped up for a hug, but Lindsey didn’t mind--she was just happy that they were back on the field together. 

Lindsey just wished Emily was on the field to celebrate too. She snuck a peek at the bench as she ran back to their half, and saw Emily pointing at her with a huge smile on her face. That should’ve made Lindsey smile, but all she could think about was how she won’t have Emily to turn to when she scores, or, at all. 

———-

When the game ends, Sonny hovers near Lindsey, but doesn’t get too close. Lindsey is glad, because she knows if they talk or she gets too close, she might not be able to keep it together for the ceremony. 

The two don’t interact until they’re back on the bus back to the hotel. It’s a near repeat of the bus ride to the game, fingers laced, listening to music together, no words exchanged. 

When they get back to their room, they have a bit of awkward silence as they slip into comfier clothes to sleep in. Lindsey throws on one of Sonny’s Virginia shirts--hoping she wouldn’t notice it gone in the morning. Emily puts on a hoodie and slips into a pair of Lindsey’s PSG sweatpants that are a bit too big for her. 

“Linds can we sleep in the same bed tonight? It’s uh...cold in here.”  
Lindsey knows that’s just an excuse, but she doesn’t mind--patting the bed beside her to invite Emily to lay there. They fall asleep quickly, one more time together for a while. 

———-

Lindsey’s flight for Denver leaves at 8 and Emily’s for Orlando leaves at 8:15, so they set an alarm at 5 to get up before they head to the airport together. But, when Lindsey wakes up, Emily is gone. Her suitcase and things are neatly kept at the end of her bed. 

Lindsey’s pissed that Emily couldn’t even have the decency to spend this time with her before they’re apart for a month. But before she can brew in her anger for long, Emily comes bursting through the door with two coffees in tow—one for Lindsey, just how she likes it.

“Em...thank you.”

“Of course babe,” Emily smirks back.

“I...thought you left me,” Lindsey croaks out in embarrassment as she rubs the sleepiness out of her eyes. 

“Technically I did,” Emily quips back.

All Lindsey can do is roll her eyes and smile back.

———-

When it’s time that the two must go their separate ways to their respective terminals, it’s awkward because neither of them really know what to say. 

“I-I’m gonna miss you so much Em.”

“You have no idea, Linds.”

They hug for a while before a man clears his throat, and they realize they’re blocking a bit of traffic.

“We’re kind of having a moment, sir,” Lindsey bites back. 

“We’re kind of gonna be late for our flight. Move,” says a middle-aged lady whose name is almost definitely Karen.

The two start to disperse, but as Lindsey turns away, her suitcase topples over and she looks back to see Emily walking away, smirking. “Who’s the loser now, loser.” She blows her a kiss and Lindsey quickly loses sight of her in the mass of people they’ve caught up. 

And just like that, it’s no longer Emily and her. It’s just her, with Emily headed off to Orlando without her. 

———-

Lindsey sleeps the whole flight, in efforts to ignore all the feelings she has about taking this flight, without Emily, and on her way to Russell. 

Lindsey really is happy to be going to home, able to spend most of her day with her parents, but she also has to go to a concert with Russell that night and her shoulder is still really bothering her from that play last night. 

———-

Luckily the day goes by quickly and she convinces Russell to let her stay at her parents for the night rather than making her stay at his apartment. She has an early flight in the morning to Portland, and her mom said she’d bring her to the airport.

When Russell drops her off there after the concert, it’s almost midnight. Normally, she’d just take a quick shower and get to sleep, but as she stands in the shower, all that runs through her mind is questions of what Emily is doing. Is she unpacking? Has she met her teammates already? What’d she have for dinner tonight?

As soon as she gets out of the shower, she glances at her phone, to see a message from Emily.

Sonny: Linds? Are you up?  
Lindsey: Yeah, what’s up?  
Sonny: Can we call?

The two end up FaceTiming well into the night—Lindsey knows she needs to wake up in 4, then 3, then 2 hours for her flight, but she doesn’t care. Eventually both of them drop into sleep.

———-

Lindsey wakes up to an alarm, but it’s not her own. She freaks out, sure she’s missed her flight as she carelessly forgot to set an alarm for herself. Lindsey is confused—she can’t figure out who’s alarm is going off. She gets up and, and thinking it’s her mom’s from the other room, leaves the room. But the alarm sounds more and more distant as she moves towards her parents room.

Once she’s back in her room, she hears it again—realizing it’s coming from her phone. She picks it up and is met with Emily, smiling softly back at her.

“Good morning sunshine,” she says, eyes crinkling.

“Son? Why are you awake right now?”

“I set an alarm for you because I knew you had to get up for your flight.”

“Em...thank you.”

Lindsey’s not quite sure how she’s gonna last without Emily saving her ass like this all the time. 

———-

Once Lindsey gets back to her apartment in Portland a bit later, she’s exhausted. She knows she should unpack, knows that Emily would’ve forced her to right away so that they could hang out and eat dinner together. 

Instead, she puts her suitcase in her room, plugs her phone into the charger, and settles into her bed for a long nap. 

———-

When she wakes up it’s still light out. She picks up her phone, realizing that it’s about dinnertime, and calls Emily out of instinct, Emily answers confused.

“Hello? Linds? Everything okay?”

“Hey, I just woke up, you wanna grab dinner or something?”

“Linds, I can’t do this right now. I’m over at Ash and Ali’s with the team.”

Lindsey, confused for a second, realizes that she’s fucked up. Wakes up to reality.

Emily quickly adds, “We can call later?” 

Lindsey hangs up in embarrassment, not even saying anything in response.

She types out a response: 

Lindsey: Hey Em, I’m sorry-  
I must’ve called out  
of habit or something.  
Hope everything’s  
going well with the team.

Emily doesn’t respond until later that night, midnight her time. 

Emily: Hey no worries-call tomorrow?

———-

It takes 12 hours of Lindsey being alone in Portland to take a walk to Emily’s. She knocks on the door. Right after she does, though, she remembers it’s not hers anymore. 

A woman, maybe about 22 or 23 and around her height, opens the door, looking confused. “Hi? What’re you doing here Lindsey?”

“Sorry, someone else used to live here—I forgot they moved. Wait….how do you know my name?”

“Uh, I’m your teammate? Nice to meet you, I’m Morgan. Morgan Weaver.”

“Oh! Yes! Morgan, I’m sorry! I was so flustered that I didn’t recognize you! How’s your transition here going?”

The two talk for a bit and Lindsey leaves after about 10 minutes, but not without apologizing to the rookie every other sentence.

Lindsey turns back home and just shakes her head in embarrassment at herself. 

What are you doing Lindsey? Get it together?

But then she has an idea. Mark wanted her, Becky, Tobin, and AD to return to training on Wednesday, giving them a couple days to recover or see family before reporting to camp for preseason. The only rule he made was no flying unless necessary—what with the recent happenings.

Lindsey has a couple of days, and one person she wants to see. Sure, Orlando was a 1 day and 18 hour drive away, but she didn’t care. She broke out into a sprint back to her apartment, grabbed her still unpacked suitcase, and ran down to her car. 

It was time for a road trip. 

———-

Lindsey didn’t really plan her trip out, she just threw Orlando into the Maps app onto her phone and decided to see where it takes her. She realizes that 11 hours into her drive (more like 10 knowing her), she’ll be passing through Utah--right where she assumes Kelley lives. 

Lindsey: Kel--don’t ask, I’ll explain when I see you.  
Any chance you wanna get brunch with me tomorrow?  
I’ll be there in Utah in like 10 hours?  
Kelley: uh sure? I’ll send you a  
place when i wake up

Lindsey doesn’t necessarily like country music, but she made herself a private playlist of all the songs Emily played in the car together and knows it’ll be the only stuff to keep her up driving through the wee hours of the night. 

After an hour or so of driving, Lindsey realizes that she knows most of the words to the songs. She does think about how much she’s been listening to this playlist lately, because it reminds her of driving around Portland in the summer. She even contemplates sending Emily a couple and telling her she misses her, but then realizes that it’s 5am in Orlando, making it 2am in Portland--and doesn’t want Emily to worry about her. 

She also wants to surprise Emily when she gets there, at some point on Monday. 

It’s still dark once Lindsey crosses the border of Oregon into Idaho at 6am. She’s already an hour ahead, crossing into a new timezone. That means in Orlando it’s 8am, Lindsey thinks to herself. She wonders if Emily’s up yet, what she’s doing today, what she’s gonna eat for breakfast. 

Lindsey has stopped a couple of times to go to the bathroom and grab some snacks, but she doesn’t plan on stopping to sleep at all--she wants to get to Orlando, and Emily, as soon as she can. If that means lack of sleep, so be it. 

———-

Once Lindsey rolls into the random diner Kelley proposed they go to, it’s about 10. Lindsey, admittedly has been speeding a bit, but with no one really on the road, it’s hard not to. 

She sees Kelley buried in her phone, sitting on a bench outside the entrance, and plops down next to her. 

Kelley quirks her eyebrow up, saying, “What in the hell are you doing here right now?” 

“Ha, we can explain inside.” 

They enter, to a deserted restaurant and a teen girl looking bored. “Is it just you two?” she asks the pair, looking unamused. 

Lindsey almost huffs out an annoyed response, exhausted from her night of driving and not looking forward to 33 more hours of staring out her windshield at open road. 

Kelley rolls her eyes at her. “Yes, and can we have a table near a window if possible? This one needs a little bit of sunshine to cheer her up.” 

Lindsey snorts, “I think I need coffee before I’m legally allowed to talk to you.” 

The waitress leads them to a booth where Lindsey can see the mountains of Utah in the distance. 

“Two coffees coming right up,” the waitress mumbles. 

Kelley lets Lindsey take one sip of coffee until she repeats her question. “What in the hell are you doing here right now?”

Lindsey shrugs, “Going to see Emily.” 

“Linds, that’s outrageous? How many hours is that? Have you heard of an airplane? Have you gotten any sleep?”

“42 hours. Mark didn’t want us in airports unless necessary. I took a long nap yesterday.”

“I mean...I don’t think I can stop you now. Please tell me you’ll sleep some? Take a nap at my apartment?”

“Eh, I wasn’t really planning on that Kel.”

“Lindsey.” 

Lindsey knows that she could probably worm her way out of this with anyone else, but not with Kelley. 

“Fine. 1 hour tops.” 

“2 or I’ll take your keys.” 

———-

By the time Lindsey heads out of Kelley’s apartment, it’s nearly 1. Lindsey is far behind schedule. She was hoping to be in Kansas City by the end of the day, but the 15 hour drive means that’s not really possible, even with her speeding. 

Sitting in the parking lot, Lindsey pulls up Spotify and goes straight to the playlist her and Emily share--the one which mostly consists of a random conglomerate of songs Emily has added from basically every genre of music out there. Lindsey swears Emily could make her enjoy listening to Gregorian Chants or heavy metal. 

Lindsey loses track of how long she’s been driving and only stops 3 times to go to the bathroom in what ends up being a 14 hour drive to Kansas City. She listens to their playlist nearly 5 times through, only skipping a couple of songs--like Rumor by Lee Brice because she doesn’t want to wonder too much why Emily added that to the playlist only they have access to. 

By the time Lindsey ends up at a random Hampton Inn in Kansas City, it’s 3am--or 6am Orlando time. She gets a room and is too tired to even brush her teeth before kicking off her sneakers and getting under the covers. All she can manage to fish out of her bag is her phone charger and she quickly checks her phone--finding a text from Mike, one from her mom, a couple from Russell, one from Becky, and 5 from Emily, all within hours of each other:

Emily: Linds, how are you? What are you up to?  
I just actually watched a movie with my team--miss you  
Linds? It’s been 10 hours?  
FaceTime tonight?  
Goodnight Linds, talk to you tomorrow?

Lindsey feels like a major asshole, but she doesn’t have the energy--emotionally or physically to message back and lie to Emily about what she’s up to. 

Lindsey: miss you em, talk soon promise

What Emily didn’t know was that it would be in person. 

———-

When Lindsey wakes up at 9 to the sound of her alarm, she doesn’t know where she is. She should be in Portland right now-- instead she’s all alone in a random hotel room in a random city. 

She shakes off the sleepiness from her head, hoping it will wake her up from this situation she’s put herself into. Who travels cross-country like this to surprise their best friend? When they lived in Portland and spent nearly every waking moment in each other’s spheres, she could push it away, saying they were teammates, had to keep up the team chemistry. But now, now that she’s faced with the reality of this situation, she realizes that maybe she has different feelings than she thought. 

———-

She quickly stops by Starbucks to get a coffee, and is on the road again. She plans on driving to the next major city that day, which of course happens to be Atlanta, which is a short 11 hours away. She knows she /should/ reach out to Emily’s family, as her parents are practically family, but doesn’t want to risk someone spoiling her surprise. 

Lindsey decides to listen to old 2000s pop to get her through another day of driving. At one point, Emily texts her:

Emily: Linds, wanna ft?  
Lindsey: can talk but not ft, i’m driving 

Lindsey knows that Emily is probably suspicious, but she can’t explain. She lets Emily talk for most of the time--about her apartment, her teammates, her neighborhood, the weather. Emily sounds pretty happy, but Lindsey knows Emily, can hear that little tint of sadness in her voice and the way she’s talking slower, like she does when she’s upset. 

“Linds, I miss you. I wish you were here.” 

“Em, I wish you were...here. The other night I accidentally…” Lindsey almost tells her that she went to Emily’s old apartment, luckily catching herself. “I accidentally burnt my dinner because you weren’t here.” 

She knows that would make Emily laugh. 

“Linds! What are you gonna do without me to save you all the time?” 

“Guess I’ll have to make Ellie cook all the time.”

“I don’t think you want that either…” Emily chuckles back. Lindsey can hear the smirk she’s making through the phone. 

“Soooo...what’re you up to the next couple days without training Son?”

“Alex invited me over for dinner tonight, but tomorrow I should probably get around to actually making this place feel like a...livable uh house.” 

“Hey Son, what’s your favorite restaurant in Atlanta? Other than Waffle House or whatever? Do they have one of those in Orlando?” Lindsey quickly changes the conversation, realizing that Emily feels a bit awkward talking about her new apartment.

Lindsey takes mental notes and the conversation soon ends, with Emily saying she needs to take Bagel for a walk. 

———-

As soon as the call ends, Lindsey turns on one of Emily’s old playlists--the one from September of 2017. The one they listened to on the bus ride to the final, the one they were so sick for but still managed to win. 

Lindsey still has 3 hours of driving ahead of her until she’s in Atlanta, and for the first time of her trip, she lets herself imagine what it would be like if maybe her and Emily were more than best friends

She thinks they already are--there’s something different about Emily than any other friend Lindsey has ever had. There’s something far different from Emily than any guy she’s ever talked to. 

She thinks about Emily dancing and singing and how quickly it can turn a bad mood into laughter. She thinks about the big things--like winning championships and traveling the world together. But she also thinks about the small things--like how easily they can find each other to connect on the field and how Emily always knows how to make her feel better, whether it be by making a joke, photoshopping her face onto a goat, or just giving her a hug. She thinks about how they gravitate toward each other and how no amount of time with her is ever enough. 

She decides she might want to make a big mistake. 

———-

By the time she arrives in Atlanta it’s already 8 and the sun has just set. She knows she could be a /real/ adult, but she thinks about what she’s doing right now, so she decides to give in to the nostalgia and sentimentality and goes to Emily’s favorite--Waffle House. She lucks out because there’s one right near about 5 hotels she could choose to stay in that night. 

She orders the All-Star, of course, and is so tempted to just give in and send Emily a picture. 

———-

When Lindsey wakes up in Atlanta on Monday morning, she chuckles, thinking about how in a normal world she would be heading to training with Sonny in Portland. She was going to try to time her drive to arrive at Emily’s new place at night, right around sunset, but she decides that she doesn’t want to waste any time they could have together. 

She pulls out of her hotel in Atlanta at 9, meaning she’ll get to Orlando around 3. She texts Ali to see if she knows what Emily is up to that day. 

Lindsey: Hey Ali, by chance do you know  
what Emily is up to today?

Ali: We don’t have anything planned today,  
so i’m not sure. Everything okay?  
Lindsey: Yup, thanks. Will fill you in later. 

Lindsey turns on her country playlist to finish out the roadtrip, thinking it might build up her courage to do this. 

Lindsey: You would be proud of me son,  
i’m listening to country

Emily: we’re apart for 3 days and you  
miss me so much that you turn country on?  
maybe our time apart is good

———-

Lindsey rolls into a rainy Orlando around 2:30. As she drives into the parking lot of Emily’s apartment complex, she is listening to In Case You Didn’t Know by Brett Young and decides she’s truly gonna go for it. 

Once she knocks on Emily’s door, she is drenched from the pouring rain. Emily opens it up, confused. 

Eyebrows shot up and squiggled, Emily exclaims, “Linds? What are you doing here?” 

“I came to see you. I missed you.” 

“Linds why would you go to airport right now? Are you cra..”

“Shut up, I drove.”

And Lindsey reached her arms out to take her in. 

“Linds…” Emily cocks her head up and they break the contact to look at each other, “...kiss me.”

And Lindsey does what she’s been subconsciously wanting to do for almost 4 years...she kisses her. 

“Linds..I’m sorry I shouldn’t have done that...should I have?”

“Em, I...you have no idea how long I’ve been wanting to do that.”

“What about…”

“I need to end things with him...forever.”

———-

The two curl up onto the couch and Lindsey looks around, seeing all of Emily’s boxes piled around the small apartment. 

“Em, did you even touch those boxes? I don’t see anything out?”

“I couldn’t do anything. How am I supposed to make this feel like home?”

Lindsey doesn’t answer, because she’s been wondering the same thing. 

“One day we’ll come home to each other again, okay Em?” 

“I would like that,” Emily whispers back, resting her head on Lindsey’s right, unhurt, shoulder. 

Lindsey could lay like this forever, with Emily in her arms. She didn’t even think about how she was gonna get back to Portland, but she’s sure Mark can deal with it if she shows up to preseason a little late.


End file.
